1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of computer networking. In particular, the invention pertains to a method of reporting various events in a computer networking environment.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently devices, such as Personal Computers or PCs, can be connected over a network, such as an Ethernet network. To connect a PC to an Ethernet network, a network card, having an Ethernet controller with interfaces to the Internet and the PC, is required.
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a protocol used for managing a network and for monitoring networked devices and their corresponding functions and status. SNMP is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art and is defined in “Request for Comments: 1157”, by Network Working Group, J. Case, M. Fedor, M. Schoffstall and J. Davin, May 1990.
SNMP messages are sent in packets called Protocol Data Units (PDUs). There are five PDU types: get-request; get-next request; get-response; set-request; and trap.
The SNMP Trap PDU is for reporting the occurrence of particular events. The SNMP trap PDU types are:                1. coldstart: indicating that the sending protocol entity is reinitializing itself, such that the configuration or protocol entity may be altered;        2. warmstart: indicating that the sending protocol entity is reinitializing itself, such that neither the configuration nor protocol entity is altered;        3. linkdown: indicating that the sending protocol entity recognizes a failure in one of the communication links;        4. linkup: indicating that the sending protocol entity recognizes that one of the communication links has come up;        5. authenticationFailure: indicating that the sending protocol entity is the addressee of a protocol message that is not properly authenticated;        6. egpNeighborLoss: indicating that an EGP neighbor for whom the sending protocol entity was an EGP peer has been marked down and the peer relationship no longer exists; and        7. enterpriseSpecific: indicating that the sending protocol entity recognizes that an enterprise-specific event occurred.        
FIG. 1 shows a generic SNMP packet 2. The SNMP packet 2 is typically enveloped in a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packet 4. UDP is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art and is described in “Request for Comments: 768”, J. Postel, August 1980. UDP provides for the transmission of datagrams within an environment of an interconnected set of computer networks. UDP is transaction oriented and does not provide guaranteed delivery or duplicate protection.
Each UDP packet is enveloped in an Internet Protocol (IP) packet 6. IP is a datagram-oriented protocol which treats each packet independently. IP neither guarantees that packets reach their destination nor takes corrective action if they do not. IP is described in, “Internet Protocol DARPA Internet Protocol Specification”, Request for Comments: 791”, prepared for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency by Information Sciences Institute, September 1981.
Each IP packet is enveloped in a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer packet 8. The MAC layer is well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art and specifies the rules of accessing a shared medium, such as the Ethernet. The MAC layer is described in the IEEE 802.3 standard specification, IEEE CSMA/CD Std 802.3, 1998 Edition 31. MAC Control 31.1, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
When the PC detects an event which requires the generation of an SNMP packet, software on the PC constructs the SNMP packet. As shown above and in FIG. 1, the software must construct each of the SNMP trap PDU in an SNMP packet, the UDP packet, the IP packet and the MAC layer packet. That is, the PC must execute a separate network layer software stack to build each protocol layer of the message for transmission over the network.
Some of the disadvantages of this method of building and sending SNMP trap PDUs are:                1. the PC must execute full network layer software stacks for each protocol layer in order to build a message containing the SNMP trap PDU and all other required protocol layer packets necessary for sending the SNMP trap PDU over the network; and        2. when the PC is experiencing low power or the operating system is hung, the PC will be unable to execute the software which is necessary to build and send a message containing the SNMP trap PDU.        